When Can I Start? #AbovavMotivationMondays

“Take a moment to think about a big project—painting the living room, losing ten pounds, learning to play an instrument, completing college—and set a reasonable deadline in weeks, months, or years from now. Write the date of the deadline on the top of a page. Then back-time from the deadline and, moving down the page, write in each week or month until you come to today. Then ask yourself, “When can I start today? On what part will I start?” After you’ve completed at least thirty minutes of uninterrupted work on the project ask yourself, “When can I start again?” You’ve just created a mental image of a project that spreads out into the future, like steps toward your goal, but also returns your mind to the present where your body can release its energy and start working.”

Let’s do an abridged version of this exercise now. What’s your big project?

My Big Project is:
_______________________________

It will take me this long to complete it:
_______________________________

When can I start today? On what part will I start?
_______________________________
_______________________________
________________________ …

Once you’re done with that phase:

When can I start again? _______________

Remember: We want to focus on STARTING again and again. Those baby steps channel any anxious energy we may have and lead us, inevitably, to our goal!

P.S. Remember: “Action plans—in which you write down when, where, and how you will perform a goal behavior—help people increase the frequency of healthy habits, such as exercise. Research on enhancing the motivation to exercise, reported in the British Journal of Health Psychology, found that the more elaborate the mental simulation of the action steps, “the higher is the probability to initiate the intended behavior.” That is, having a mental rehearsal (creating pictures in your mind) of what you intend to do and specifying when, where, and how you’ll do it increase the odds that you’ll start on the actions that lead to your goals. This finding applies whether your goal is to exercise more, eat healthier foods, stop smoking, or work consistently on top-priority projects.”